Not Attacking Religion

MONDAY MORNING GOSPEL SINGING went extremely well for me. There were a few folks missing, but that didn'tmatter. What does matter is that I sang better, imho, than I ever have before. After four years plus, I might, just...might...be....figuring out how to sing the rancid stuff, gospel. Heaven knows its taken long enough. Same old sycophantic bloody tunes, sure, but, all in all, fun. As they say, when in Rome. At one point the nice old long bearded gentleman next to me, perhpas in a moment of rare enlightenment or desperation, offered: "what we need, what the church needs, is a big revivel", or something like that. I believe we had just completed singing "Revive Me Again", or something like that. I thought about that as I took a bite from my chocolate chip cookie (the senior center generously provides snacks) and joined in as they began to sing my favorite "How Great Thou Art". When we finished, I turned to him and said: "Actually, membership in the church, in the Christian faith, ( I like to use the word "faith" rather than "religion" when dealing with the devout) is declining, in Europe and North America, as the culture increasingly secularizes". I was surprised when he understood and agreed with me. I was not surprised when he said something like; "Then too, it seems like the church is being attacked". Well, maybe I was a bit surprised, but not much. I never am. We sang another hymn, something gross about washing our sins away in blood, and donning a pure white robe.(or it is yellow?). I didn't say anything else to the nice old man, didn't need to, as if tacitly accepting his remark as factual. I am,however, considering saying something to him next Monday. I am tempted to tell him that there in fact is no attack on the Christian religion, organized or otherwise, by anybody, anywhere. Sure, there are people who don't like religion at all and would prefer that it vanish from this EArth, many such people. But there is no evidence of any concerted effort by anybody to "attack" religion, other than in the free market place of public opinion, the media, and print, where indiviiduals exercise their human given right of free epression and opinion. But there is no attack. What there is is an increasing trend towards the secularization of society. The modern concept of secular democratic government has and is takng hold. Then too,there is the rapid, sweeping inexorable advance of science, and an increasingly well educated public in all areas of science and technology. By claiming that free expression, diversity of opinion and religiosity, and a mass migration among humanity from religious belief is an "attack" of any sort is a blatant if unintentional attempt by resentful "believers" to victimize themselves in their seeming inability to rejuvinate their organized religions in the face of their rot from within, and is false. According to current trends, all religion seems destined to wither away in the future. It may take decades if not centuries to complete the process. Humanity may keep inventing new religions for thousands of years. They will flicker, grow, decline, and die, like all religions ever invented have. Less likely is that the Christian faith will revive, spread out unto and into all nations, and conquer the entire world, and install itself once and for all as the one true faith of planet Earth, and, by extension, the universe. And the fact that this is vanishingly unlikely might well be among the greatest gifts the good lord has ever bestowed upon His god fearing, adoring children. As I eagerly anticipate next week's gospel singing, I give thnks for this, not only to my god, but to the Christian one as well.